Computing devices, such as tablet computers and e-readers are becoming increasingly popular for viewing textual digital works, such as electronic books and magazines, as well as other similar digital works. Using a computing device to view digital works has many advantages for the user. For example, the user is often able to store multiple digital works in a computing device. Instead of having to carry multiple printed books or magazines, the user need only carry a single computing device. Also, some computing devices provide advantageous features including, built-in reading lights, the ability to change the text size and/or font, etc.
Using computing devices to view digital works also presents challenges. For example, many digital works, such as books, magazines, etc. are protected by the copyright laws of various jurisdictions. To prevent copyright infringement, safeguards are used to limit the distribution of a digital work. Typically, copyright protection, often referred to as digital rights management or DRM, involves encrypting a digital work in a manner that prevents a user from distributing the digital work beyond the terms of the user's license. Data storage is also at a premium on many computing devices. Users want to store as many digital works as possible on their computing devices. To address this, digital works can be compressed prior to storage and decompressed when the users wants to view them. Encryption for DRM and compression for maximizing storage, however, are computationally expensive transactions. They either require faster, and more expensive, hardware or introduce undesirable delays into the user experience.